Our First Sweep Through The Start of Free Agency

[Music] [Music] Welcome to the hockey video cast. My name is Dimitri Filippovic and joining me is my good buddy, Sean Shapiro. Sean, what's going on man? I'm, I'm doing my best like Canadian like hockey impression right now like I pay attention to tracks for agency all day, stayed busy with all of that and I am then tomorrow morning kids driving the kids up to the cabin for the weekend for the 4th of July so I do have to return to my home on Monday afterwards but I'm doing my best Canadian cottage insider impression right now so I'm buying it. I'm buying it right now. I like it so as long time listeners know it's an annual tradition here in the video cast you and I get together and we do our July 1st breakdown kind of sorting through everything that happened at the start of the agency now typically we have our pal John Madd is joining us this time we've got the third seat empty in his honor because he is on LTIR and so won't be available so hopefully he has a speedy recovery and rejoins us soon for the next time we do this otherwise it'll be the same vibe maybe slightly less habstalk although I certainly have a section on them in light of I have in Demidov's extension but we're gonna have some fun I mean listen we're recording right after things have slowed down here on July 1st there's so much for us to sort through I don't know if you feel the same way but my head is spinning right now trying to kind of recalibrate and figure out how all the moving parts fit and so I've got a list of about 10 to 12 teams that I wanted to run through that I thought did the most interesting stuff and we're gonna have some fun with it and go back and forth and go for as long as it takes us to get through the list yeah for sure and I think we uh let's go we do this originally I pushed back time a little bit which I think worked well because a couple of things were able there was kind of a slow developing space today so I'm kind of happy we're doing it now we got a little bit more to diagnose and break down and everything like that and I mean we got to start with Mattis's habs right like I don't know how we start anywhere else other than by honoring the man himself by talking about what the look and ADNs did right well we certainly can I was gonna say that it really feels like this is shaping up to be the summer of Sean because a lot of the biggest stories and most consequential ones whether it's the stars and Jason Robertson and the whole Zach Ranske saga from these past couple days the Red Wings and Dylan Larkin Connor Hellibuk and Golees it feels like everything's kind of coalescing around your specific interests but I'm gonna start with the habs I mean they had a very quiet day but God arguably they're most important business done by on the first moment they could that I haven't done it all was extension eligible they got them signed for eight years at a very tidy 9.15 that encompasses is age 22 to 29 seasons I'm generally a proponent of go as long as you can as early as you can on this type of a talent they now have Suzuki coffee Slavkowski Demidov Hudson and Dopson all signed through pretty much their 20s at 51 million combined they still have about 14 million in cap space for next season have a bunch more money coming off the books with veterans like Anderson and Deno and Montenboe's final year got a figure out Bulldoork and docs are a face status but it feels like their position nicely here to really kind of scale up this lineup go big game hunting I know they've been linked to Carol Merchenko quite a bit and that would be an incredibly interesting fit they've got some stuff to figure out down the middle but they positioned themselves really nicely and you know didn't necessarily add a player but I feel like getting this type of business done in such a timely manner is very efficient and has set themselves up really nicely moving forward on the Demidov one right to for me that's sometimes so many times teams play with their food and mess around and don't really get things done the right way and this is the last year you can get an eight year deal done and just to me it's a phenomenal extension to get that done and while I wasn't the big UFA day for them right there's still a couple things that I think they're interested in and a couple moves that they entry but for me it's just an addition to shout out our boy John it's the it's getting it's sometimes doing the smart simple thing should be rewarded in a business where sometimes there are some there are some other things done that I'm sure we will get through today right now on this list well especially this summer where I think we're seeing in real time the pitfalls of contentious second contract negotiations ridge deals that are poorly timed and how that can have serious repercussions for your team building moving forward and so it's not necessarily the most glamorous move because like I said he was obviously a key member of their team last year and they didn't necessarily have an addition but it slots in really nicely and sets themselves up really well um do you want to talk to how Star is a little bit because they also didn't do much but I feel like this whole Robertson thing kind of yeah it's a shadow on the offseason and we're all waiting for the next dominoid yeah it's hard not to talk about them right with the whole Robertson stuff and then obviously the big decision to today to trade to trade Maverick Bork and use that deal to kind of get out of Ilya LeBouchekin's contract I think it's they are they were very quiet um obviously I mean I'm sure someone there's some some stars fan out loud is yelling at me for not um giving the accolades for the you well kivirontes signing that happened in the last 30 minutes or whatever but like it was it was something where it's interesting to see all that played out because this Robertson saga has been going on and and now after they tried to make a Seattle trade last week it did not go through they tried to make a Columbus trade with featuring Thomas Tarlie for Zach Orensky it's a team that the two sides between the two sides being Robertson and the stars now are kind of come to that point where they have to figure something out like they it almost becomes that if you if you're Dallas if you let Maverick Bork go and you kind of didn't get that you kind of player a really young player that I know Jim Nitt really liked um and you let him go any you don't get the Robertson deal done you're looking at some some really tumultuous thing so it's it's kind of interesting to watch them both back themselves into a corner here on both sides and I'm really fast as he where this goes but it's also it feels a lot like an arbitration case coming to all at the same time so it's it's it Dallas is a really fascinating because it's it's one player but it's there's lots of shades of gray where all this is right now oh it certainly will impact a lot of other things and I think certain teams are also kind of waiting for a resolution and keeping their powder dry a little bit until this option at least is eliminated I do feel like you know through all of this maybe not for Robertson necessarily because you don't get the instant payday but I do wonder if going the arbitration route was kind of the most logical path all along beyond just acknowledging his importance through organization and paying him what he's worth and then figuring out everything else out after that because it'll likely slot in somewhere what nine and a half to ten million for one year on the ruling and then obviously we'll walk him up to his UFA but the stars will have an opportunity to extend them beyond that and the reason why I mentioned that as we talked about is the stars are in such a weird financial window where yes they're up against the cap and everything's really tight and they're facing this crunch and that's why they lost Maverick work but it doesn't extend beyond this season right it's really a one-off in that say again zeal expires next summer the cap goes up again they have some other money coming off the books and they're going to have a ton of real estate to work with and so assuming the relationship isn't too far gone at this point and feelings haven't been hurt to the point where they can't be mended I feel like there's a logical conclusion here where you go to one year on the arbitration you wind up signing Robertson for seven years after that making him good on the back half of it by increasing the A.V. to what he wants and he comes out slightly ahead financially taken on the risk of course of injury in this one season and the stars are able to keep at least some semblance of their team together in the process and I think you're right and it's the whole like I think one of my big takeaways from today and kind of doing a little bit of digging today and just talking to some people is well there's been some contentious moments in this Robertson's camp who is Andy Scott's Andy Scott is his agent who also happens to represent seemingly every other important player on the Dallas stars and Mikko Rant and in a wide Johnson and Thomas Harley they all have the same agent well there's obviously some contentious moments in this conversation at the end of the day Jason Robertson wants to be a Dallas star he wants to be the highest paid Dallas star and that's kind of where there's a little bit of this kind of friction point and I think it's more of a friction point almost between not necessarily a Jim Nill thing too I think there's also an ownership part of this work for Tom Galart I think that's an important element of this I don't think Tom Galarty has a massive appetite for a $14 million player right now I think that's kind of there's he doesn't he lets Jim Nill do his job but there are elements where the owner comes into playing his his money so I think that's been another element of this as well but I look at it and the people I spoke to today and kind of some others, they've come back to each other and they realize that they might be the best future for both of them is together, especially after what's happened with some of these other potential things that Dallas looked into and whether it was the potential Seattle move or I still don't like the Werenzki thing, which I know we're going to have a long chat about here is interesting to because I still think the stars have also shown at the same time there's the level of if you can if they can improve something Jim is willing to swing big on it and obviously I'm a big Thomas Harley fan you and I have both liked Thomas Harley even if there's been some a little bit of a dip the past year or so whatever you want to call it after the four nations kind of reputation. They're willing to still robberts and camp still like seeing a team that's willing to if you can improve if you've never Thomas Harlan to Zach Werenzki you improve your team and that isn't I think a lot of stars fans took that the wrong way with their like oh how is Thomas Harley going to feel you look around the room until you get the best 20 players you can always improve your roster well one of the fascinating signals to me in terms of you know it's been reported at least in some circles that Robertson may prefer going the arbitration route as opposed to signing long term at some point right now which signals his desire to stay with the stars if it wasn't already clear based on him turning down crazy amounts of money from the crack in and a blues deal as well shortly thereafter is he's worried about signing a long-term deal which obviously comes with no trade protection in the first year because it's still an RFA year and then signing up for this deal and then having the stars turn around and then trade them like he's clearly prioritizing wanting to stay with the Dallas star as well also being compensated to a level that he seems fair for his production level and so I feel like there is still a way to make that work you know they get our two-huru signed at 875K as you mentioned they bring in or bring back you all keep your aunt for one million and I thought it was interesting in that press release there was a lot in there about his penalty kill exploits and his shorthanded contributions and I do wonder whether that's another signal that either Sam Steel and or Ratic Faxas 2 million or so are going to be on the move to facilitate more money to kind of fit this roster together and at that point you could really kind of push towards that 13 million if you want for Robertson so that would make a lot of sense but I do think that some of the shrapnel in this in losing Maverick Bork is a big loss and we shouldn't necessarily overlook that right and you know to his credit he he signs that deal last summer which paid him what 950K and it was a real kind of bet on myself type moment and he comes back he's used as their fourth most frequently used forward a five on five this season scores 20 goals in his age 24 year I thought in that in that playoff series against the wild was probably their second best forward behind Robertson you could really see his forechecking chops on display there he was one of the only guys they had that could get to Quin Hughes in any meaningful way and losing him as a product of this even if you get off the lebushkin money and you get back the second and third which theoretically is bigger than what you would have gotten if he signs a 4.775 million dollar offer sheet is still a massive loss regardless oh yeah and I and I love the Maverick Bork story it's one of those where there's a similarity in him betting on himself twice in his career now he had a really down year and when he came obviously I've tracked the story quite a bit and I set text to this over to my pal Adam Vignan and Nashville to kind of share this story a little bit like he had a really down year his first year in the AHL and really bet on himself reinvested in himself looked into kind of his off-ice training his mental health everything like that and then went and won the the AHL MVP the next year and then he had a similar kind of moment where he could have taken a longer deal with Dallas we could have done that and he did the one year deal to the RFA kind of bet on himself invested himself a little bit and did that so it's a really it's a success story and it's in odd it was an odd thing to kind of from a Dallas perspective it's kind of what they had to do and it is a loss like to to not call it a loss is a complete thing and it's also to be clear for my understanding there was multiple offer sheets that he was mulling over like there was multiple and I haven't been able to confirm whether Nashville was one of the actual offer sheets or not but there was multiple teams where he was heavily considered over the offer sheet and the stars basically were like well we're gonna lose him either way now so now we find a way to get out of LaBouchekin's money as well but I think it's one of the I want to give Nashville tonic credit here real quick on that because I think they did a really good job recognizing a young player that I have a lot of faith in that I think is gonna allow them to especially if you've you've said you've some guys in Nashville who as you kind of move some things around who are maybe plain center that maybe should be more on the wing at this point in their career that I like that you can kind of build Bork into that in your top six now too so I like to move for now I like to move for for Nashville obviously more so than Dallas but Dallas it's cutting your losses the best way possible I had the predators on my list we can get into that now real quick the nice thing about the Bork ad for them is that I guess technically it's still a central division rival that Chris McFarrow and is very familiar with from his matchups of av stars but otherwise the predators really just went into their archives deep into them loading up on former avs players which you know certainly isn't you when a GM changes jobs has guys that he's familiar with and likes and swoops in and and adds them to his new situation they over the past two weeks have essentially added Ross Colton, Jack Dury, Alex Kerrfoot from back in the day with the avs Jack Ashaan and then they go out and they also add Adam Edstrom, Niels Oakland or in Bork and LaBouchekin of course and the thing that I like about that I know people are gonna point to it and say like it's kind of where you were already to begin with it's not necessarily needle moving but beyond Dury and Bork who and we'll see what Bork's deal is I assume it's going to be a longer term investment all those deals are in that kind of one to two-year window and I think Chris McFarrow and the predators very astutely noted that you know they have the leverage of cap space this treasure chest of picks to work with I think they still have double digits the next two years and time on ice opportunity and some veterans that are going to potentially be going out the door over the next year so and got into their accumulation phase essentially here and really leverage that they just add a bunch of assets we've seen how teams are treating players who under contract especially short term at salaries that haven't ballooned yet to fit the current cap environment and they'll be able to recoup that and then build on on those futures as well in the process so I do like with the star with the predators dead there and you know Bork is certainly on the higher end of that list I like nil hose li ho niels ho glander to us like kind of a by low type move right like I don't think that's like is that the move that's going to shake and shape the central division obviously not at all but I think there's a couple that that's that's another smart move too and and who knows right the other thing within the accumulation stage for Nashville you go and get lebushkin he's a right shot veteran D what is the most overvalued thing at the trade deadline every single year right shot veteran D all of a sudden you look at potentially if you're where I think they're going to be in the central kind of out of it and a little bit of still in that kind of accumulation phase you got a piece that you can accumulate more with maybe with selling in season two so I like that before we move too far off of this and get to some of the other teams I do want to quickly circle back to Zach Ren's game a little bit because within the context of the past whatever week or so for the Dallas stars as you mentioned they had two very public failed trade attempts the first one sending Roberts into the crack in and him turning down the extension offer and then agreeing to essentially swap Harley with other stuff on top of it for Werenzki which Werenzki turns down and I'm endlessly fascinated by this you and I have been exchanging some messages throughout the day obviously no insider information here for me but just kind of reading the T. Lease it's certainly from an outside feels like Don Woodell essentially got peer pressured into frantically panicking and Werenzki bailed him out at least for the time being now I do think that if you are going to trade Werenzki that was probably the best you're going to do in terms of getting a locked in primage left shot defenseman that we both think highly of in Harley but it always struck me a strange that it was kind of this expedited process that happened so quickly here right culminating in Elliott Friedman's report on Tuesday evening that ends with the dramatic line of things have taken a nasty turn right and so much for the no soap operas just hockey in the NHL because that was about as dramatic as it gets but I always found it strange because this situation does feel dramatically different than for example the one that you're living first hand with Dylan Larkin at the Red Wings where he clearly wants to go out and go to his preferred destination for for Werenzki it seemed more of I have two years left on my deal I'm not even extension eligible for another year this Blue Jackets team has made a bunch of win now oriented moves in the meantime to try and push them back in the playoffs after missing the postseason for the past five years and wanting to see what that looks like before making an informed decision down the line and I get some of the you know fear that's attached to that when a superstar player that you've built your organization around expresses that level of uncertainty you're like all right well we need to maximize our return now while we can but I do feel like he actually without knowing him wants to be there but just wants to do it in an competitive of environment where they're making the playoffs. And so I think seeing it through makes sense. And I do feel like it was very sort of rushed and forced on their part to try to push this process through in the manner which they did. Yeah, I think the blue Jack and Sadana Wudell let themselves get bullied by the state of how things are going, right? Like it's the whole. And I'm sure there was an overreaction to the team USA stories, right? And like, well, there is a very real kind of the. At some point someone's going to get the like those lost files that are that group chat, right? Like that's going to be the. Maybe like Babcock will ask for it on someone's phone and see it. But there's the whole. Like, there's. I think the bluejack and Don Wudell over reacted to a lot of that. And where this is when they go, like for example, Werenzki and Larkin work out together in Plymouth, Michigan here about 20 minutes from where. where in same place where they work out with the Hughes brothers, I think there was a lot of the. Oh my God, everyone's trying to force a move. And so we're going to overreact to this. And Werenzki did bail them out because what if you go and you have the year this year that think that what if Fentyley takes the step that you think is going to happen? And you get a couple other things here. And all of a sudden you're like, you know what? This looks like a pretty good spot. And you didn't have to trade away a Norris Trophy winner. So in a weird way, like, it's kind of funny because you see the reaction of like, oh my God, you asked for the trick. Well, wait, I look at it. I don't think Werenzki really asked for the trade. He was just a bit honest about. To me, this isn't the same as the Dylan Larkin trade request. I think the Werenzki and Larkin situation, well, they get kind of roped together naturally by a couple. by some very similar things with who they are and where they played and everything like that. I think they're two very different things and you're right. Don Woodell got bailed out a bit from making a potential mistake to kind of bring things to keep Werenzki in the fold because at some point, who are you going to build around? Right? Like, yeah, like it's a. I don't know. I do think that it's also a relatively negligible difference in terms of the value you'd expect to get back for a m in trade. If you did it now as opposed to let's say things develop even further and you do it a year from now, right? Just purely because he does have trade protection and it seems like wherever he picks a theoretical destination down the line, it's going to be a team he's going to extend with and sign for and they're going to pay full price to acquire him as opposed to a rental where you're like, we got to get what we can right now. So it all culminates with the joint press statement from both sides, which included Werenzki's name being misspelled and taken that down and then correcting it with the proper spelling. But it seems like at least for now, Kool-Aid's propelled and obviously the bluejacket still have some work to do. They have Ventilli and Grease's S-R-F-A's. They got to figure out the Marchenko situation, but I feel like it's a lot more encouraging now than maybe it was 24 hours ago when it seemed like we were in absolute full panic mode. And I think there's something where there's some, I guess for lack of a better word for gifness from Werenzki's camp because I think it's one of those where it's like you and I sit down and be like, hey, I want to figure this out, but I'd really like to kind of see you do something that gives me a plan for two years from now and then you turn around and I'm like, he's gone. We need to go get someone else like, it's a funny way to look at it. But yeah, it's I could not help it. I had to double. I had to read that twice, the misspelled name. That was just that was peak. Yeah, I do think there's certainly some residual start issue from the his back. Back its and all the guys that are left and let them in a tough spot. So I do get it, but it seems like common sense at least prevailed for the time being. All right, who's next on your list? Let's talk what you want to go. Do you want to go with the exit or into into Florida spot on this? We want to go with because it's the whole I just can't help but laugh and when we see guy, I mean, it's similar to the Martian deal that they signed, but Raccogood is if Raccogood is placed six, you mean, you're not playing that six year deal, right? Like it's just you kind of look at the way that goes around and I kind of want to just let's let's start there. And as opposed to the guy, some of the guy who's supposed to the guy who left Florida and obviously I'm talking about that probably with Bob and another Columbus type. But let's let's let's go to Florida for a little bit. Well, let's do it. So yeah, the Raccogood is contract is objectively hilarious. They give a 36 year old, six years to keep the A, B down at 1.5 and make the money work. It's the second guy now that they've given an extended deal into their 40s and are blatantly not even pretending to care about it. Now, I thought the most important business they did on July 1st was getting you to at least a reason, extending for eight years at 5 million beyond next season. And that is now the ninth skater that they've maxed out with eight years while they still can before the CBH changes in September. And yeah, to your point, they also let the Browse go to the Leafs. They replace him via trade, acquiring Jacob Markström and Akira Shmeed as a tandem and Ed. And I honestly find the devils part of that with Markström and sort of the stuff they did here to be probably even more compelling. But I think the Panthers are a fair shout because they've clearly maximized every single edge they possibly can under the current CBH to put this team together. And they didn't overly like you didn't go and overpay a J Greer, right? Like how often do we see teams sometimes go and do stuff like that? And I think Florida's kind of an example of sometimes knowing when to let a guy walk like what Greer goes and gets what 4.25 million from Anaheim like knowing when to let a guy walk is I think a valuable thing. And obviously the Buprofsky one is the biggest one. I've just kind of letting that go and then getting Markström in. But I think that Greer one is just like a quiet piece of solid business of looking at we're not going to overpay for a career when we're looking at these other things. And it's like so. And once again, the list of Ryan and Deal though, that's I love that extension. Yeah, I mentioned the devils part. And you know, of course, this is Sonny Meadows first offseason is the GM of the devils. And I think he's done some really nice work, maybe not necessarily you know, making the blockbusters that people would hope for. But I do think he's already shown a level of creative acumen and resourceful thinking in getting out of potentially troubles and deals and positioning them better for the future than anything we saw from the previous regime. They first you know, get out of Nematch's looming contractual conundrum. Let's put it. I think it was a pretty tricky spot given the circumstances based on what he wanted to pay and all the contracts he already had on the blue line bank two extra first down the line in the process. They get out from under Markström's six million times two extension wind up getting back Evan Rodriguez. And yes, for both quist and we've spoken endlessly on the PDO cast about how utterly useless their bottom six was last year. And so I feel like that's nice reinforcement. They get great six signed for three years of three point two five. They walk away from Paul Caughters qualifying offer, which I like that would have been a disastrous deal to keep on even though he obviously signs just a very reasonable one year deal with Vancouver. But I think the right player to kind of walk away from they purposefully target bear it hate and via offer sheet and we love offer sheets finally got to see one. We can talk about that more in a little bit. And I think just as importantly, you know, they get an equal history or signed for five years at 11.7. And that is a hometown discount based on what those going rates are going to be, especially by the time that deal kicks in. I think Don has his market value around 12.3, which strikes me as as perfectly fair. And actually, in this case, view the five year term as a positive, right? Because I think he's going to be 29 by the time that deal starts. And you almost eliminate the risk on the back half in years six seven and potentially eight when he's already in his mid 30s. And you're going to get the rest of his prime essentially at this reasonable number. And so you put all that together. And I thought it was a pretty impressive start to this regime's run and kind of setting up the devils to start moving in the right direction. Yeah, I had a conversation with with Elaine Wah who was the Niko's agent last week. And we were chatting a little bit just about the Niko situation. And they were very, he was telling me, Niko is very impressed with what New Jersey's been doing. And that's kind of one of the things that kind of went into this term and this timing and kind of creating that flexibility. And that off her sheet to me, like that's also a, I love it for you and I we always talk about off sheets don't happen or whatever. Right? Obviously, St. Louis did a couple, the couple players from Edmonton. But I love the way that Sonny comes in, Sonny Metta comes in and does the it's a well, it's one of the best done offer sheets you've seen, right? Because you talk, it's it's it you want the offer sheet to be something that makes someone think about it. And I love the way that the Hayton one goes down where if they match, if they match, they can't trade them for a year and it walks them right to the UFA spot, right? Like from a player perspective, it was the dream offer sheet to get. And I would love to see like those are the, that's what you should see more of, I think. Yeah. And so four point seven seven five compensation, which keeps keeps it at a second round pick. And I believe $666 more dollars, very on brand would have cost them significantly more in terms of potential comp if the mammoth don't match it. And I do think it's a very purposeful beyond obviously identifying it, especially after all the moves the mammoth did, which we'll talk about, right? acquiring Trochec, signing Anders Lee, bringing back Kevin Stenland, they resigned, yeah, Mammotho previously kind of setting up their four group and sort of viewing the one piece that's still not bolted down as Hayton has a very interesting the same thing. Third line center option for them, assuming the mammoth walk away from it. And I think it's going to be an interesting decision for them regardless. But you know, Hayden, I think some of the shine has come off of him because he was coming off his down year. He sort of fell out of the Utah's rotation. But 26 year old obviously has the pedigree previously. But I also think just generally, and this is going to be something that's going to be very instructive about sunny meta's background and how they approach this is a prime regression candidate, right? And it shoots 3.3% at 515 last year. Well, that's not certainly going to continue. Registrar's a point on 42% of the goals he was on the ice for. That's low and kind of out of his control. And then had great underlying numbers. Otherwise was used in a defensive role with ozone starts and still had shining underlying numbers regardless. And so it's a perfect target for them. Very low risk, very reasonable upside. And we'll see how it turns out. I think all this stuff is very encouraging regardless of how the shakes out. Yeah, I agree. And I like the couple of the bets they made. And I mean, it's, it's, yeah, I'm happy with what New Jersey did. And Utah is certainly interesting and intriguing in the way they went about some things. Obviously, they also went and make the trade for, at the draft day, they go and make the trade for Sebastian Kosa. They make the bet that Detroit is, is made the mistake on that, which I'm fascinated to see how that plays out with the two year or two million dollar deal for, for Kosa and with Utah. Because he's someone who I think has all the physical tools and everything like that as a goalie guy, but kind of has to get it right between the ears. And maybe that works, maybe that works there. So it really intriguing kind of time for both sides of that, that hate and deal with, with both Utah and, and New Jersey too. Let's take our break here real quick. And then when we come back, I want to jump back in to talk about the mammoth a little bit in some of the stuff they did here. You're listening to the hockey PDO cast streaming on the SportsNet Radio Network. All right. We're back in the hockey PDO cast, Roman Chantrapero. We are doing our takeaways from July 1st in the start of free agency, running through some of the most interesting teams and what they did today. The mammoth. So we started talking about it a little bit before the break. You know, at the draft, they kind of take a Mulligan on the proturka trade now. There's no getting back Josh Dough and what he's become certainly, but they clear his salary, bank the two first, as you said, they use one of them, 23rd overall to bring in Sebastian Kosa, which is an interesting upside flyer for them. I think especially in light of the past two years with how much the overworked Kurova Melka and he was the only goal in the league to play 60 plus games last regular season. I think he had 64 games. And so finding a viable sort of backup to take some of that workload off of them. They acquire any Trollcheck for Sean Dersy, the 24th overall pick from two years ago and a third rounder. And I thought it was a, you know, I was ready to sort of poo poo whatever Trollcheck trade happened for the team that acquired him because I do feel like his reputation and the way he's been covered, particularly in light of all the T USA stuff has sort of overblown what he is at this point of his career. But I thought this acquisition cost was relatively reasonable compared to what some of the reported asks and demands were from the Rangers and he'll be an interesting fit for them. You know, a lead at face off certainly has the PK chops. I think is an underrated sort of interior shooter for them. And they go out and they bring a band which allows a bit more flexibility up front for them. And so I don't know if you have any notes on that or if you want to lump in the, the Anders Leade as well. Well, I really liked the ad at the cost. I mean, one of the biggest things with the Trollcheck part was his value greatly outplayed what he was at the reported value in the perception greatly outplayed what he was worth. But if you had told, I mean, Dersy, Bowdoin and a third round pick like that's, I think this is what Trollcheck should have been moved for all the other stuff we've seen in the past. We've seen what New York was asking for how people have talked about him. So I love the move for Utah on that perspective. And I think Lee adds a really nice, it adds a nice kind of helps enforce the spine of that team, which just to be blunt, right? Like the central, I know we talked about Dallas before and there's obviously a lot of kind of figuring all of that out. But the central is a battle, right? There's going to be this kind of, and I like the way they've kind of set that up there and they didn't kind of have to blow everything the way a lot of people talked about Trollcheck happening. So that is maybe a lesson in patience for teams when it comes to some of these guys, especially of let the, let them win their gold medals and let them do all of that and maybe don't pay for the gold medal shine in February and maybe wait a little bit. Maybe that's not a, that's, that's a little bit of a lesson here if you're looking at the Utah work here. Yeah, we'll talk more about the Rangers sign a second. I will say from the mammoth perspective, though, Jersey had kind of fallen into that third parallel, especially after they brought in Mackenzie Weeger and having that top four solidified. And I imagine part of the logic for them and viewing them as expendable. And I think he's got a really interesting skill set is creating some room for, you know, Dimitri Simachev and Maverick Lamaroo and some of the young defensemen they drafted to start kind of integrating those guys. And I think that's also been clear throughout this process as well, sometimes to my frustration because I'm so excited about this mammoth team. And I'd like to see them just level up and take these massive, ambitious shots in the trademark. But they very clearly are very reluctant to move on from their top prospects and they're very high on them and they're looking at ways to integrate them into their lineup and kind of keep the steady flow of cheap talent coming in. So we'll see how that shakes out and instead of doing that, they make this move without really trading any of their premium assets for Trochech. They sign Anders Lee and, you know, for Lee, there's always concern for a 36 year old, right? I think his game lends itself to continuing to do kind of what he's been for the next couple of years because of how already ground locked his game is like I think his strengths and relative weaknesses are pretty clear and well defined. At this point, I think his power play utility is something they clearly craved. They were 18th in the league in power play efficiency in the regular season and that really killed them in that round one series against Vegas. I think if they had a competent power play, they might have beat them in that matchup. His in zone offense, we've seen him succeed with kind of fluid puck carriers like Mappers Al previously. And so the idea of potentially putting them with Cooley and Gunther, I think is an interesting thing to explore and if that bumps crowds to Yamamoto down to third line roles and they're not playing all of these high leverage scoring minutes, they way they were previously. I view that as a win ultimately. And Lee and all these deals, right? It's always with the 35, it's going to be a 35 plus deal. I think it'll be 36 in a week or whatever it is, right? A couple days. Yeah. You always know that you're going to kind of run into some issues at the end of it, but his game has aged extremely like his game like his game is aged. He's embraced his role and then he's also kept the durability as well, which I think is an important thing as I've watched some other players at his age where it's kind of you've seen the cliff hit at 34 or 35, whether it's in availability or fragility that comes into play. And that hasn't happened with him. And that's why I like this. I like this move for I like I like this for Utah. Let's keep it moving. I got a couple more teams I want to run through with you. We got to talk about the sharks who went. Absolutely. Absolutely. Ham today. I think, you know, them and the capitals went the craziest out of all 32 teams. They go out and they signed base in March, 6.75 times five. They signed Jacob Truba 8.25 times four and they take on the full freight of guard owners is 9.25 times four. Now, I wanted to kind of separate these, right? Because I think the Marchman signing is fine. Even if their wings are overcrowded, he clearly has a unique complimentary skill set with his size. He's 31. But compared to your typical 31 year old, he's only got 360 NHL games on his legs, which is like four and a half seasons worth. And he's shown that he can be productive 515 without necessarily getting premium power play time. So I think that gives them some options. The two commitments they may own, D though, are not ideal to say the least. And listen, I think in the grand scheme of things, they have so much money coming off the books the next couple of summers to go along with all the capsoories they had here this off season that will necessarily be restrictive. I still don't love taking on that money, particularly in year three and year four on players who are going to be pushing 35 have already shown deteriorating skills. You have all your young forwards. We're going to be coming up on their second deals at that point. And you're going to hope we have these defensemen that you drafted this year that are going to be pushing for legitimate opportunities with the team, right? And so you put all that together and I get sort of the criticism for it. And it certainly isn't what I would have done. They had the openings on the blue line, specifically on the right side with the truba. They clearly valued these kind of veteran toughness to go on along with their all their young forwards. I just kind of wish they had done it in a more pragmatic way, especially they probably would have had to pay something more as opposed to just kind of taking on a salary dump. But a guy like Morgan Riley, for example, which would have been a similar financial commitment for four years. I think would have been a much better stylistic fit, even if he's a lefty because he actually still has the puck moving ability and can and get the puck to their forwards and advantageous attacking positions. And in this case with TruBun and Nurse, I think that's gonna be limited to a point where it's gonna be very frustrating to watch. - Yeah, it's, you kinda hit it on the head for me. Like the Marchment One, well then there's some initial sticker shock for me on that like, don't man, Mason Marchments getting that much money. I know what Mason Marchment is and that's the value. I think you're gonna find good value on that. I mean, it's, the TruBun to me is, I just, I just don't like the TruBud deal, right? Like the TruBud deal, really the Nurse One, I don't like the Nurse One or the TruBud deal, but the TruBun to me is just, you kinda come off the draft, right? Like and for me, the sharks have big winner at the draft, right? Like I love what they did on the draft, especially in that first round where you go and get some high bets on D as well. And then Riley's a good example of someone I would have preferred to see as well there. I just, if you're San Jose, I think it's a perfect example of how it's easy to rip it all down, not rip it all down, but it's easy to kind of build and move some things, but then you also have to have someone in the room who says, okay, we don't need to go and spend $8.25 million on Jacob TruBud, trick up TruBud per season, right? Like and that, that to me is, I would have been okay if you go with TruBud Orners, I can be like, you know what, that's fine. I can deal with one of those. The problem for me is the bet on both of them. And I think that's where you really run into problems. - Yeah, undoubtedly. It feels like overkill and I get it. They had all this cap space burning a hole in their pocket. They're just trying to bring in who they view as reliable and each other is to fill some of those minutes. But like I said, looking at the hockey stats data, for example, through Corey Schneider's tracking, like Jacob TruBud, 21st percentile in defensive zone retrievals. Arnold Nurse, 18th percentile. To make sure a lot of who there's still playing for another year, 39th percentile. And like these are guys who are gonna struggle at helping out their forwards and putting them in a position to succeed and get ready to learn one of my least favorite plays in hockey, which is Arnold Nurse holding the puck behind the net, waiting for all his forwards to run his routes, shaking a couple guys off, and then just sending a puck down the length of the ice and having it be an icy and coming back for a draw. The other way, and you know, from the other side for the oilers, like I feel like getting off of his money even with the cap going up and people around the league valuing his toughness and skill set and ability to eat minutes and do all that stuff. Like I think is still really tidy work for them. Not only getting off that money, but taking a bet on a younger cheaper left-round defenseman in Shakira, Mook Madulin, they go around and use some of those savings on Ryan Shay. There's a bit of concern about his sample size where he's a 29 year old with only 150 games. You're quite familiar with them, I'm sure, and his way up through the Texas stars. But I really liked his game. Last year, by comparison, was much better at defensive zone redriebels, really good on the PK, a very reasonable contract they signed him to despite being one of the few defensemen on the market who can skate and chew gum at the same time. The oilers also take that flyer and Devon Levi trading down from the third to seventh, essentially bringing Freddie Anderson on a one-year deal, Bretagne, Casperi, Capon on a one-year deal. I thought it was a remarkably reasonable July one for the oilers compared to what I'm used to from them. I feel like while we're bringing it down from the shark's perspective, I think the oilers did pretty well there. I mentioned the other team that went hand, the capitals. We love the Tuck sign and trade acquired in Jordan. Kyru previously they spend 4.2 times four on Vinny Dayharnay, which might have been one of the more surprising signings of the day, Boone Jenner at 5.7 times four. I have a lot of concerns about Jenner as a 33 year old, I think, with how much time he's missed every year, the past six years, essentially. I imagine part of the logic for them beyond having the cap space was bringing in a center and potentially bumping some of these younger guys like Astorta for Nilea Protus to the wing to maximize their offense, but they went kind of crazy with that. I got a couple other teams I want to run through with you. The Kings, the Rangers, the Lightning, the Leafs, and then a couple of teams that I'm going to be watching for moving forward, which one do you want to start with? Let's start with the Kings just because the Ken Holland special was on display of let's go bring a bunch of old guys and put value on getting into the playoffs over actually trying to maybe win this thing at some point. Yeah, then bringing in a 41 year old, a 39 year old, a 35 year old, a 34 year old, and then 32 Scott Laudan, the young buck back for three years, is definitely on brand. I will say like the Matt Zuccarello one, and I know there's the $5 million bonus attached to it if he hits 10 games, which he will hit, is still a great deal. I think very highly of what he brought to the wild and how valuable is on the powerplay, especially. So I love adding his playmaking. And I think the terms were relatively reasonable. I think Eric Gustafson's going to be interesting. We'll see if he gets any run with them. But I did want to note that pretty much the last time we saw him succeed in NHL in 2023, '24, was under Peter Labielette. And so they bring him in for $1 million. And meanwhile, like the wild lose Zuccarello there, they lose Marcus Johansson who goes back to Europe. It looks like they're going to lose Lodterra Sanco. And we'll see what they do in the meantime. But those are pretty valuable minutes. They just lost in the wing. And they don't really have a lot of resources to kind of backfill it. Now, wild on that point, it's going to be interesting when you're spending as much money as they are. And obviously, the map boldly deals incredible. But obviously, we're spending the amount of money that goes to basically five or six players in Minnesota. I'm fascinated by who is going to be-- are you going to find that guy where you and I are messaging back and forth after 35, 40 games? We're like, you know what? It's the shack meme. I wasn't really-- I wasn't familiar with your game. But you're going to have to find that guy if you're in Minnesota because it's a lot of openings for that right now. Yeah. You know, we mentioned the Rangers before in the Troll Check trade. They completely reconfigured their blue line. They've got the Gavricott Fox Bear coming back. They send out a 20 30. First, I can't believe we're already getting into 20 30s with these picks. For Marcus Patterson, they bring in Sean Jersey in the Troll Check trade. They wind up sending out Will Borgan for a couple picks to the Boston. I think a pretty precarious position. I know that both of the first, they sent out via trade over the past week, our top 10 protected. But particularly the 20 31, for example, where Adam Fox is deal expires in 2029. I think it's a lot of risk. They've inherited for a team that I think is still fair to be skeptical of how good and how competitive they're going to be. But they clearly had no appetite for continuing to miss the playoffs and suck the way they have recently. And so they go out and make all those moves. They bring in all reproxier and at a very reasonable 4.5 times one, even though I was pretty frustrated watching when the lightning last year. And I guess in combination with all those things, I find it a bit perplexing. I know they are ready to move on from it. And it's kind of in line with what they've done previously. But sending out Troll Check likely means that you're bumping JT Miller back down to center, for example. And I think at this point of his career, that is an ideal if you're going to try and be as competitive as they are. So the Rangers were certainly very, very active today. They were active, but I don't understand the plan. I'll just be very clear, right? Like you're looking at it. And it's you're kind of watching it. You're trying to get a better sense for everything of why and how and what a team's trying to do. And I look at the Rangers and it's very much-- it feels like watching that guy. It feels like watching my college roommate who was just couldn't sit still playing Madden because he always had to-- if he couldn't go in off season without making six trades, right? So I look at the kind of the Rangers. And it's like the Troll Check thought process, the door of Fee have trade from last week, and the Troll Check thing, they're going to different angles. And then you go in there. Like I don't mind the Bjorks trend deal. Like in a vacuum, I like that. But overall, I look at this and you kind of struggle and say like, what is the actual plan here? Because I'm struggling to see it. Yeah. I got a couple more teams all around through with you. A Bay Lightning. Bring in Iliamakev, 3.85 times for 100% LP care. In Chicago, such a perfectly on-brand to have a Bay Lightning bottom six player. They also bring in Jeffrey VL for a pretty crazy deal, I thought, but that allowed them to move off from Nick Paul after adding-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Good for you, if I turn to what? 11 and 1/2 minutes per game into that job security. Like-- Sure did. Good timing. Yeah, it's all about timing. They train Nick Paul to the Leafs. They bring back-- he'll be kind of similar to what I just said about Kosa and the Mammoth. I think ideally getting away from having Vasilipsky pushing 60 games in the regular season, shed some money in the process. And the reason why I note that is you look at it now pretty much with a full team. They have just over 10 million in cap space. And we still don't have any clarity or resolution on where John Carlson's going to go. But we know they've been linked pretty heavily to him. And so that opens the door for that. And would be a certainly an interesting fit. And then the Leafs, they signed by Braski, as we said, 7 million times to me. They-- other than Rosalvek, who they give four times two, they bring in just a Schmorgas board of bottom six defensive forwards in Cole and Sizzle and Nick Paul, Brandon Dooham, Teddy Bluger. And I think a very clear mandate, despite not necessarily being an ideal allocation of resources, to reconfigure the bottom six to have reliable players. they can actually eat up defensive assignments and take shifts in their own zone so that Matthews and McKenna aren't having to do so because we've talked about how Matthews was just had like 99th percentile quality of competition last year and all of this succeeding kind of hinges on him getting back to being the best goal scorer in the world and so they certainly spent a lot on players who aren't going to score. The Ross Levic one I liked better than I thought I was going to. Like I actually didn't mind that deal. I liked that better than I thought. There's, I also think there's a level of that kind of appeasement for it all goes to, there's a lot of that kind of you build towards keeping Austin Matthews happy and putting the, but at the same time it keeps a lot of that pressure on where the points have to come from. I, let's, let's talk about the Maburowski thing real quick because I was Robert and I were talking about it earlier today and I struggle with, I struggle with that deal because it feels like such a, it feels like such an overreaction legacy signing to me and someone was going to do it, right? But like, where do you, where do you fall in the Bob signing? Because for me, there was the, I think people look at the resume and obviously it's probably going to be a Hall of Fame resume based off the Vezna's and the Stanley Cup wins, but I just, it doesn't, to me, that's not the answer. And so I, I want to throw back to you on what you think with Bob there. Yeah, listen, they're very understandably unsure that Stolar is going to stay healthy and play enough games. And so I think the plan is to split the starts between the two of them. But Browski's turning 38 and was not good last year. I know that the team around him crumbled with all the injuries and they weren't the defensive team. They were previously, but he's going on a couple of years now of very pedestrian regular seasons and then turning it up in the playoffs, especially with some of those highlight real breakaway saves. I think there's quite a bit of risk there. I mean, especially based on what we had heard about his asks for Florida, for example, with the term specifically. I was ready to absolutely hate the steel because I thought it would take him deep into his 40s. So for three years, I, I don't love it. I think he's been overrated previously, certainly, but I understand at least the logic of it a little bit in terms of splitting starts between him and Stolars. And I don't know. I don't have too many more thoughts on the Browski. Honestly, he is as our pal Jack Fraser says, a goalie. Yeah, that's true. I've got three more teams on my list of, well, not the hurricanes are always kind of perpetual on this list of teams that require it and didn't do anything and wait to see what they do because they're certainly going to do something here. But teams that did some stuff on the margins, but I think are still obviously bigger moves coming. I've got the red wings. And I like the Victor Arbitson ad five, five million times two, certainly with at his age and with the injury risk, you don't want to over commit to it. But I think he's showing ways on the ice. I mean, last year he was incredible. So I think for a team that has caps face, it's a very reasonable infusion of scoring. I really like the, you know, speaking of former Panthers goalies, Danielle Terrasov at two million times one, I think is perfectly reasonable. They take on Kola Saras contract and we can talk more about that when we get to the biggest section here real quick. But all of it feels also kind of like, you know, nice window dressing, but ultimately the, the Larkin dilemma is kind of hanging over it like a dark cloud. And I don't think any of this provided any more clarity on it. We're seeing the market kind of dwindle, although maybe Vegas has opened some stuff up, but otherwise like the resolution, I think still seems pretty unclear and they're kind of in a holding pattern as a result of it. Yeah, it's possible to talk about the red wings without the Dylan Larkin trade. And it's a trade that may not happen. Like Eiserman is the guy who will be content with, okay, show up to camp. You're still under contract. You got five years left. Very blunt about that. Very blunt about that on Saturday after the draft when he's spoken. I like the, like Arvid sent to me is, I like the move there. I think that's something that they definitely need and I like to bring that in. I don't mind Kola Sar. I think he's, he's a good little ad for that there, but we can assume, I'm just assuming Kane is gone now. You probably, Arvid's in replaces some of that in a little bit better way at five on five now because Kane had kind of just become what he was at even strength. And hopefully Teresov, hopefully Teresov can actually push John Gibson because last year there was the kind of, the end of Cam Talbot was not nearly enough and they worked John Gibson to the bone and it's a classic Red Wing storyline over the past couple years. You overwork your goalie and then they break in March and then the team falls apart. And so hopefully Teresov helps prevent that. But until there's some direction on this Larkin thing, it's hard to really figure out what the Red Wings are. Are they a team that is in an awkward fight with their captain or now X captain depending on how they plan to do that if he's still around there? They a team that's going to be able to move them for another piece that helps right away or are they going to really, can they really embrace the young fun storyline of, hey, this is most sideers team and it is already is most sideers team, but like just from like a perception standpoint and from a Detroit example too, just from all of that and hear me out on this. The time to do that was a couple years ago. Like there's, it's been such a long, there's been, and it's the fan base is starting to turn on them too. So it's hard to talk about Detroit without talking about Dylan Larkin and I would love to be able to be to talk more about the other things, but at the end of the day until that's done, the Red Wings are in this weird awkward, just holding pattern. They are. So that brings me to the Golden Knights who shed a bunch of money in the process. They still have work to do there, but they send out Korzac's contract for Parker Wathers Boone at 500K, they, you know, regrettably keep to their word and pay 30 year old Rasmus Anderson 8.5 times seven, which I think is a contract where all. Yeah, that's a co-love. It doesn't that feel like doesn't that feel a lot like the, hey, we made the big trade for this guy. So we have to, we have to go through and deliver with a contract. That's what that felt like a lot to me. It does. And if there was any organization that you wouldn't expect that from, it would be them. So it was a bit surprising. They dump, Keegan Colossars 2.5 on the Red Wings for the two picks. And that leaves them with about 3.66 million in cash space as we're speaking with the Transjol and LTI are now, you know, whether it's in hell after his signing bonuses get paid and he has just a 1 million dollar base salary this year, although a five, five year commitment on top of that or, you know, Tom Hurtle 6.75 times four or William Carlson's 5.9 times one. They have other ways to create meaningful cash space and get into that near double digits. And I imagine there's more moves coming here, right? They, you know, they bring in Victor Olipson on one year. They have 9 forwards under contract, I believe right now. And so I will be watching that very closely here over the next couple of days and weeks. And then I mentioned the penguins there with the waters, food, for Corzai swap. The reason why I think that's interesting is they also go out, they sign Trevor Van Riemstein. They, you know, including Harrison Brunek, who I think they want to get into the lineup, have five right shot defensemen. Now and I'm curious to see if there's another move coming there to clear it up, particularly as it relates to Carlson and Latang. So I find that really interesting. They also, you know, take a couple shots. They trade for Nick Robertson for a fourth. They bring in Andre Cosmico on a one year deal in the man to memorial spot. And so they were quite active as well. But I feel like the penguins are still relatively unresolved in terms of making the numbers work. Yeah. The Robertson deal is intriguing to me just because I'm at personal level of just knowing Nick Robertson a little bit and seeing where it goes. And I know Kyle Dubas is obviously draft to have been always kind of some intrigued to see how that goes there. But very much an incomplete team right now. And one of those I would put on the list of like, all right, this is great. This is day one. But where and how are some of these things going to shake out when it comes to Pittsburgh? And Vegas, right? That's the one where we see them linked in on everything. We know Larkin wants to go to Vegas and play with his buddy, Ikel and everything like that. And so like Vegas is the whole because of their past history. You can't help but lay out something else's biggest comment. There's going to be that other big trade because that's the way they do things. They go and they make the trade. It's not necessarily. It's going to. So when is that going to happen? And I think that's the way I'm looking at a couple that would both with Vegas right now and that Pittsburgh. It's more of a curiosity, I guess. How is this? What is the kind of step here on this, right? Well, that's kind of a defining quality around the league, right? Where a lot of stuff happened today and certainly we just spent the past hour talking about it. But it feels like some of the most interesting stuff from most cause of cultural stuff is still to be determined via trade. And so it should make for a fun offseason. We got through as much as we could here today as our heads are still spinning and we're trying to sort it out. I will do a second sweep tomorrow and do another show and get to some of the other stuff we didn't get to and kind of put a pin in it before we take a little bit of a break. I will let you on the way out here promote some stuff. I know you said you're you're going for a little getaway, but you've been very active certainly on various platforms. And I'm sure you have a lot of other fun stuff coming. So I'll let you promote whatever you want here on the way out. Yeah, for sure. Robert and I have been working on our show. Dimitri has been our most famous sports net guest so far on algorithmically incorrect hockey. We've got a bonus episode coming out tomorrow morning on that with Michigan State strength coach Wilmore Locke actually who is you asked Porter Marton who is one of the most one who is the person to help him get to the NHL and be ready for the flyers the most this year. He'll talk about Wilmore Locke quite a bit. So that get my on-platform over the sub-through sub-stacks, Shapshot's hockey, check that out, and then obviously with too much work with our pals over at Elite Prospects. So those will be my shouts today, and then I'll close it with, if you're an outlet that's looking to hire a good person who's a really good writer, John Maddice, as your man, so give him a call. - As soon as he gets off LTIR and makes his return on the PDO guest, all right, buddy, well, enjoy your time off in a little getaway, living the Canadian dream, going off to the cottage, I will not be taking a break yet. As I said, I'm gonna do another show here, breaking down some of this stuff from the start of free agency, and we'll take a couple days off after that, but I wanted to note, unlike previous off seasons where we just go away for all of July and August and come back at some point in September, we're gonna be plowing ahead this off season, we'll be keeping doing regular shows, so don't leave the feed yet and stick around, and it should be a fun off season here, if you've enjoyed this show and all the stuff we've been doing, gives us a five star reviewer view list and subscribe to the PDO guest. Patreon as well, plenty of extra content, come in there throughout the summer, and that is all for today. Thank you for listening to the hockey PDO guest streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.